Residents of Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach, predominately black neighborhoods popularly known as SANS, cheered when they learned on Saturday that their communities are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Julian Adams of the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, in the audience at Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater for a talk by Andrew W. Kahrl, an assistant professor of history and African-American Studies at the University of Virginia, made the announcement. He described how the three Sag Harbor communities, one of the few remaining black resort areas in the United States, came to be owned by African-Americans, who were unwelcome at white resorts. 

Georgette Grier-Key, the executive director of the Eastville Community Historical Society, which is based in Sag Harbor, had invited the audience. Renee Simons, who acted as M.C., said petitions were being circulated for 50 percent of the 306 houses in the three communities, asking that they be landmarked. 

Dr. Kahrl is the author of “The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South,” which won the 2013 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award from the Organization of American Historians for the “best book in civil rights history.” In it, he shows how almost all African-American beachfront communities were eventually dispossessed by legal and extra-legal means and, in particular and ironically, during the civil rights movement in the 1960s and ’70s. He pointed out that beaches did not have much value as real estate in the first half of the 20th century. Unwelcome at white resorts, African-Americans came to Sag Harbor, and to Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard and Highland Beach, Md., in the postwar years. Sag Harbor is now one of the few remaining African-American resorts in the United States. He noted, however, that as black resort areas increased in value they were co-opted by white landlords. That was not the case here.

The three Sag Harbor locales go back to 1947, when Azurest was founded. They began to evolve as year-round rather than summer communities in the late 1970s when public water was installed and roads were paved. A 40-year-old film showing a good number of those in the Guild Hall audience when they were young drew laughter and guffaws.

Another of Dr. Kahrl’s books, “Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline” (Yale Press), is about a Hartford man who led protests by African-American mothers and children during the civil rights years that helped open restricted beaches in Connecticut, a state many people think of as enlightened. Mr. Coll took youngsters from housing projects in the north end of Hartford to private or town residents-only beaches along the Connecticut shore. 

To some extent, Mr. Kahrl, who is white, could be said to have been preaching to the converted. The audience swamped him when the program was over, buying and asking him to sign his latest book.

In this season of fund-raisers, one upcoming event stands out for its inclusiveness of multiple organizations. 

On Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Guild Hall in East Hampton, this “fund-raiser with a twist” will comprise a screening of “The Letters: The Untold Story of Mother Teresa,” live and silent auctions, pop-up shops, and a food truck. Beneficiaries are the Unstoppable Foundation, which brings sustainable education to children and communities in developing countries; Mully Children’s Family, working to eradicate poverty and improve social justice in Kenya; the Voss Foundation, dedicated to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to enable community-driven development in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Urban Zen Foundation, which seeks to preserve cultures while inspiring change by integrating mind, body, and spirit in health care and education.

“I’m calling it an all-inclusive fund-raiser because I think we don’t need to feel competitive for dollars,” said Phyllis Chase, who organized the event. “They are all doing good work and can help one another.” 

Five South African safaris from Zulu Nyala will be offered in the live auction. A silent auction will feature items from the likes of Jennifer Miller Jewelry, an African animal oil painting by Beth­ ­O’Donnell, personal coaching from the comedian Eddie Brill, a Zamani Collections carpet, and a membership to the travel concierge company Indagare. Foundations including Urban Zen, Voss, the Neo-Political Cowgirls, and Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue will offer their own silent auction items. Maasai Collections, Nuudii System, and Zamani Collections will be represented by pop-up shops in the John Drew Theater’s green room and will donate a portion of proceeds to the Unstoppable Foundation, as will Opa! On the Go, a food truck serving Mediterranean, seasonal, and diner favorites. 

Ms. Chase, who lives in East Hampton and Los Angeles, said that she was inspired by a workshop held by the Neo-Political Cowgirls, the women’s dance theater company, in which women discussed their nonprofit organizations. “I had this moment of inspiration to invite other charities,” she said. “I hope it changes the way people do fund-raisers going forward. I hope it catches on.”

That inspiration followed a decision by Ms. Chase, a retired psychotherapist and former radio host, to set a personal goal to raise $1 million for three Kenyan charities, which itself followed her attendance at a charity event in Beverly Hills featuring Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and youngest Nobel Prize laureate. “I had to think twice about spending $250 to go to it,” she remembered, “but I was so moved by the children they’d brought that I pledged $2,500.” 

Later, an inheritance allowed her to sponsor a village in Kenya, and last year she visited the village. “That was an amazing experience,” she said. “The kids are so grateful, so thirsty to improve their lives, to learn.”

“The Letters: The Untold Story of Mother Teresa,” a biographical drama, will be screened at 7:45. Told through personal letters written over 40 years by one of the greatest humanitarians of modern times, the film, starring Juliet Stevenson, Rutger Hauer, and Max von Sydow, reveals a troubled, vulnerable Catholic nun grappling with feelings of loneliness, isolation, and abandonment by God. 

The film, Ms. Chase said, is less about religion than Mother Teresa’s suffering. “We can all relate to feelings of abandonment,” she said. “I was deeply moved by it.” 

The 2015 film’s release coincided with the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., which discouraged many from attending public events, such as a night at the movies. To further its exposure, Ms. Chase invested in its nationwide re-release, scheduled for Sept. 4, the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s canonization. “They let me have the film so I could do an event in my hometown,” she said of OnBuzz, the company that is distributing its re-release.

Following the screening and until midnight, a garden reception will feature music and food from the Golden Pear and the Red Horse Market.

Tickets for Wednesday’s fund-raiser are $25 and available by entering the East Hampton ZIP code, 11937, at onbuzz.tugg.com. Special box seats, at $100, are available at myunstoppablechallenge.org/chasematchings. Ms. Chase can also be contacted at [email protected] for box seat tickets.

Hilaria Baldwin will host Linda Mayes, M.D., of the Yale Child Study Center on Wednesday in the first in a series of talks on parenting presented by the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center and the East Hampton Library. 

The talk begins at 6 p.m. at the library and is free, but reservations are required. 

Ms. Baldwin’s husband, the actor Alec Baldwin, will offer an introduction to Wednesday’s discussion, which will focus on “understanding your child as an individual, understanding yourself as a parent, and how to mindfully focus on both,” according to a release.

Mr. Baldwin has been a longtime supporter of the Whitmore Center. Ms. Baldwin is the author of “The Living Clearly Method: 5 Principles for a Fit Body, Healthy Mind & Joyful Life.” She is the founder of Yoga Vida in New York City and a lifestyle correspondent for Extra TV. The couple have four children together. 

Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Mayes is the director of the acclaimed Yale Child Study Center and is the Yale School of Medicine’s Arnold Gesell professor of child psychiatry, pediatrics, and psychology.

The image at right is a copy of an original pastel portrait of Melissa E. Morgan by John Ferris (Jack) Connah from 1935. Ms. Morgan died last year at the age of 94. She lived on Maidstone Lane in East Hampton Village and was considered an active member of the community, from volunteering at Southampton Hospital to working in the Ladies Village Improvement Society thrift shop to serving on the East Hampton Library’s board of managers.

Melissa Elizabeth Morgan was born on Jan. 6, 1923, in New York City to Thomas Earl Morgan and Catherine Gibson. Her father had a long career in shirt design, from 1908 to 1956, ultimately developing shirt and pajama fabrics for Dan River Mills in Danville, Va. Melissa attended the Hewitt School for Girls in New York and was most likely a student there at the time this portrait was completed, when she was 12 years old. Her mother died two years later in 1937.

According to the July 20, 1935, edition of The East Hampton Star, Guild Hall had an exhibition featuring pastel portraits of children by John Ferris Connah. Though not specifically mentioned in the article, it’s possible Melissa’s portrait was in the show, which included the likenesses of Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier, among others.

Not much seems to be known about the portraitist, though much is known about his father, Douglas John Connah. A landscape and portrait painter as well as an illustrator, he taught at William Merritt Chase’s Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, the first art school for open-air painting in the United States, from 1897 to 1900. He was also the director of the New York School of Art from 1897 to 1909, now known as the Parsons School of Design.

Gina Piastuck is the department head of the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.

When Luke Louchheim made an appointment with Maude Adams of Artisan Construction Associates of Water Mill to discuss his proposal to build cat and dog “condos” to raise money for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, Ms. Adams knew Luke was a student. 

“I just had no idea he was in junior high,” she said. “But Luke walked in and he had this whole presentation with binders, a brief, his thoughts, and photos about some things he was thinking of, what type of things he was looking for. I have to tell you, I was amazingly impressed. The other thing was, he came to us well before the deadline — which is rare for architects.” 

The deadline to which Ms. Adams referred was for the submission of doghouses for auction at ARF’s annual Bow Wow Meow Ball, which will take place on Aug. 18. “My immediate response was, ‘I want to hire him,’ ” Ms. Adams said with a laugh. But that will have to wait.

Luke is 14 years old and a rising freshman at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor. The “arfITECTURE” project the young Sagaponack resident conceived and shepherded from conception to completion during the last 10 months won cooperation from 18 prominent architects and builders, as well as the gratitude of the staff at ARF, which raises money for the rescue, care, and adoption of animals. Photos of Luke’s entire arfITECTURE project appear on ARF’s website, arfhamptons.org, and advance bidding is available online. 

“For him to be able to pull all of that together, he’s quite an impressive young man,” Jennifer DiClemente, ARF’s director of development, said this week. Luke, however, was modest about his efforts. He began actively pursuing his interest in architecture three years ago by arranging for tutoring with Emelia Steelman of Martin Architects in Sagaponack. He came up with the doghouse project, he said, as a way to blend his interest in architecture with a desire to help ARF. Luke’s family has two dogs, Sam, a pit bull-Chihuahua mix, and Buttercup, an English bulldog mix, both of whom were adopted from the nonprofit agency. 

“I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I was older, and I thought architecture,” Luke said. “When I was being tutored I had to model Philip Johnson’s Glass House. I also like Andrew Geller’s Long Island beach house designs, too, since they’re so simple. I started drafting and drawing things. Then it was on to learning the computer programs. I’m still learning them.”

One of Luke’s designs, an A-frame house with a slatted roof that he called “Alpha Dog” and built with his father, Joseph Louchheim, is among the nine doghouses and one cat perch up for auction. There’s also a striking mirrored doghouse called “Snoop E(nigma),” which was designed by Bill Beeton of Beeton and Company and built by Landscape Details. “I just love it because it disappears into the landscape,” Luke said. 

Kitty McCoy of Kathrine McCoy Architecture and Walter Sterlieb of Studio 449 collaborated on the most elaborate structure being auctioned, a cupola-topped doghouse with latticework sides and chinoiserie wallpaper inside. “Purruch,” a cat house Ms. Adams and her business partner Sean Forestal built, was designed by Eleanor Donnelly of Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects. Andrew Reyniak of ARPAC designed an ARF “barn,” using recycled wood pallets obtained at the Montauk fishing docks.

Mr. Reyniak said he was struck by “the high value that Luke placed on civic engagement. He already has an understanding of architecture as a civic undertaking. The architecture school I went to really stressed that, and mentorship being part of the community and doing socially engaged work, not just weekend homes.”

Patrick Droesch, of Amagansett and Florence Building Materials, agreed to underwrite the building supplies for the projects. Water Mill Building Supply, Speonk Lumber, and Riverhead Building Supply also helped. 

Luke said it was exciting when the completed houses began to arrive by the July deadline. “I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s been amazing the way it worked out. Literally everyone approached said they would help. Everybody I asked was nice enough to meet with me,” Luke said.

“Well,” Mr. Reyniak said, “Clearly, Luke is a very caring kid. And he’s a great salesman.”

The constellations on the ceiling of Grand Central Station are backwards. It was a design mistake, which, when pointed out to the builder, Cornelius Vanderbilt, upon its opening in 1913, Vanderbilt, trying to save face, claimed that the inversion was purposeful: The stars were not meant to resemble the view from below, from man's eyes looking up from Earth, but from above, from God's eyes looking down.

I was thinking about this in the Guild Hall auditorium a few weeks back, as Col. Randolph Bresnik, a NASA astronaut, who’d been invited by the Montauk Observatory, which, as God would have it, did not end up being built in Montauk but at the Ross School in East Hampton, delivered a talk before a series of photos from his various space missions, most of them of the earth viewed from the space station, most of them, not looking out, but looking back. He pointed out Long Island to an awed crowd of 275 people. “So that’s what we look like,” I thought, studying the screen, as if it were a mirror.

"Man is the measure of all things," said the ancient Greek sophist Protagoras a long time ago in a village far far away before he was charged with impiety and drowned in the sea. He meant, roughly, that man's view is defined and limited by his own eyes. He cannot conceive of scale beyond his own. We measure a room in feet, for example, because that's what we use to cross it and say hello to Andrea Grover, Guild Hall's executive director, and Terry Bienstock, the Montauk Observatory president at a pre-lecture reception on a Wednesday night in Guild Hall's back room.

It was an exciting event "two years in the making," Mr. Bienstock said. Getting NASA clearance for Colonel Bresnik to come speak had taken Mr. Bienstock two years, while getting the observatory, now home to the largest research-grade telescope on Long Island, ready for its first viewing party two days later, had taken about 12. Mr. Bienstock, an astronomy enthusiast and eclipse chaser—he recently flew from Miami to Nashville expressly to see a total solar eclipse; he watched it from the airport parking lot along with a few others who’d flown in from London and Boston similarly, before hopping the next plane back—had gotten involved when, shortly after he retired as executive vice president and general counsel at Comcast, he read an article in The Star about the Suffolk County executive's refusal to purchase the telescope. Appealing to the community, Mr. Bienstock launched a mission, now accomplished, for its public support. The telescope was eventually funded by Montauk Observatory board members, and labor for the observatory itself was donated by Tom Frey Construction.

Colonel Bresnik was booked for two lectures: One for children on a Friday afternoon, and another two nights before in which he and his wife, Rebecca M. Bresnik Esq., an intergalactic lawyer at NASA and lead attorney for the I.S.S., delivered a lecture together, keeping our adult interests in mind. We learned about cancer research being done at the space station, the astronaut exercises that give you the best body, how zero gravity alleviates joint pain, and space ownership -- "Is there private property in space?" When will it be up for grabs? Better to buy south or north of the Milky Way?

To people "from away," the Hamptons are known primarily as a place to see stars. I spotted Luke Wilson last month at the Amagansett I.G.A.; last week I browsed the racks next to Steven Spielberg who was shopping with his daughter at Brunello Cucinelli on Newtown Lane; Alec Baldwin has written letters to the editor of this paper, while "Real Housewives" are as ubiquitous as the deer -- one must be especially careful of them when driving at dusk.

But to members of the Dark Sky Society, an organization devoted to keeping light pollution down, the East End is known for a different kind of stargazing. Eva Growney, an architect and former Dark Sky Society member, explained this while texting me a link to more information, before Mr. Bienstock, along with a few others taking turns at a telescope nearby, asked her to close her phone, for its light was ruining their view of Jupiter.

The East End is wonderfully dark. So dark, God can't see it, Vanderbilt might say: In the space photo Colonel Bresnik snapped of Long Island, our end of it was black. So here, in our little godless pocket of the universe, as well-exercised women try to broker profitable marriages with well-heeled men, as Real Housewives dodge the paparazzi they've tipped off to their whereabouts at Southampton's 75 Main, as a slick hedge funder yells at the Nick and Toni's maitre, "Do you know who I am?" and as "society" dresses up for yet another good cause -- all proceeds from the Ugly Baby Fund's third annual gala will go toward infant plastic surgery and help to raise awareness of this ongoing problem -- and I write about them all, a few others collect their telescopes and arrange to meet now and then in the dark. "The Hamptons are full of stars," goes the Montauk Observatory's tagline, "Just look up!"

These star-studded events -- featuring free tours of the night sky guided by volunteers like astrophysics professor Michael Inglis and physical sciences professor Sean Tvelia, along with a few of our local Solar System Ambassadors; or a lecture about Nikola Tesla by Sebastian White, a CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) physicist, and a talk about the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory by Nobel Laureate Rainer Weiss -- have been and will continue to be hosted throughout the summer and fall, and you don't even have to know Gwyneth Paltrow to get in. Space is a wonderful leveler. At the "Star Party," we're all small, happily.

Colonel Bresnik, who recently returned from 139 days in space where, as commander of the International Space Station, he orbited the earth in 90 minutes, viewing 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, was small among us.

We stood in the grass, in the dark, as lightning bugs chatted mellowly in the trees, and we talked about space, about waking up early, at 3 a.m., to get the best view of Mars, about black holes and the possibility of infinite universes. William Taylor, a local Solar System Ambassador (a NASA certified volunteer organization of amateur astronomers), directed Colonel Bresnik's gaze toward a "nearby" star cluster -- "You see that blurry thing?" -- while Brian Walker, the president of Stony Brook's Astronomy Club, told me space appeals to everyone for it invites the contemplation of "endless possibilities."

As a novelist and space enthusiast -- my short-lived Tinder profile read "I'm into space, ice cream, and staying home" -- my own interest in the cosmos focuses on the variety of ways people attempt to interpret it; it, being everything. There are the grand unifying theories of competing theoretical physicists; the abstractions of philosophers ancient and contemporary ("Why is there something rather than Nothing?" Jim Holt asked in his National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book "Why Does the World Exist?"); the fictions of writers like Arthur C. Clark who penned "2001" and filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick or that guy I saw looking at slacks; the "Starry Night" paintings of Vincent Van Gogh; the astronauts like Colonel Bresnik who jokingly refer to themselves as "stick monkeys" and actually go where the rest of us only gaze, and the astrologers, too, who see in the stars a map of everyone they know, warning Mercury is in retrograde, making it a particularly blue day for you.

Astronomers dislike astrology -- Professor  Inglis stiffened at the mention of the word -- and would say calling it pseudoscience gives it too much credit. I don't believe my life can be traced in the stars, but I do enjoy a good story (especially one about me!), so I will now and then read my horoscope in a magazine. I'm "such a Pisces," I've been told by astrology buffs and was once given a coffee mug that describes my sign's "sensitive and generous nature." Each of the other 11 mugs in the zodiac flatter similarly, describing differently wonderful people, some "passionate!" others "fair!" which does not account for the many assholes cutting me off on 27. Where's that mug? "You are a prick," I'd like to read just once.

If we dismiss astrology completely on the grounds that it's a self-serving narrative devoid of science, insisting in its way that the universe revolves around you -- it's trying to tell you something, listen to Oprah and buy "The Secret!" -- we dismiss our own humanity, blind to the fact that all our possibilities are threaded through our limitations, and our humility, through our vanity. Our eyes, our feet, our minds. Even our curiosity, the way we frame a question, limits its answer.

When I went to see the astrology team Monte Farber and Amy Zerner last month to learn about pagan traditions surrounding the summer solstice, Amy gave me a tarot card reading and asked me to think of a question, before Monte said, citing "an ancient saying: If you know your question, you know your answer." I couldn't think of one, which struck me as a pretty accurate assessment of my life.

I'm better at asking other people questions. I have as many as there are stars--maybe. "Will man escape the confines of the Earth before the sun swallows it in 7.5 billion years?" I asked Colonel Bresnik before he gave his second lecture at Guild Hall, this one exclusively for kids. "I hope so." Will man ever escape his own questions?

After both adult and kid lectures, Colonel Bresnik took questions from the audience. "How does space affect digestion?" an older Italian man asked reasonably. While all of the questions were interesting -- their answers, too, (the food goes down just the same, but it floats in the stomach, so you almost never feel hungry) -- they also somehow fell short. There's a reason "2001," the greatest movie about space ever made, has so few words. How could anyone ever explain any of what it was attempting to explain? What we really want to know is ineffable. "What does it feel like to go to space?" a few kids asked, getting closest to the heart of the matter. What does it feel like to be alive?

Man is his own measure and like Protagoras will eventually be drowned in eternity. But in the meantime, there are parties. How far is the closest star? How many feet away was Steven Spielberg standing when he browsed the slacks?

—

Read about dark matter and Iris Smyles's trip to CERN: If It's Tuesday This Must Be the Higgs Boson

A severely decomposed humpback whale washed ashore on Napeague last Thursday morning, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society reported. 

Society biologists conducted a necropsy on the whale on Friday, after East Hampton Town Highway Department and Marine Patrol units worked to secure it in the surf. Though the cause of death was not determined then, biologists said the whale was a female, 30.5 feet in length. Samples were sent to a pathologist, but the results may take several months to come back. 

“Because there is limited space on the beach and steep erosion, the best option for the examination and disposal was to transport to East Hampton Town Sanitation,” the society said in a release, adding that this was the sixth humpback whale death it had responded to this year.

“There is an ongoing unusual mortality event in effect along the Atlantic Coast that has impacted more than 75 humpback whales since 2016,” the statement said.

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs ­­could lose $10,000 in state funding and take a hit to other revenue streams because the Town of East Hampton has mandated a switch to visits by appointment only, which went into effect yesterday.

Drop-in visiting hours had been from 1 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays during the center’s May to October season. The change came in response to concerns expressed at a July 13 meeting by the East Hampton Town attorney, Michael P. Sendlenski, about overflow parking and traffic around the popular site, which is on busy Springs-Fireplace Road.

Nearly 10,000 visitors toured the former home and studios of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner last year, an increase of almost 1,000 from 2016. The center is slightly ahead of the 2017 pace this year.

“The town wants the historic story of the location shared with the public, but has significant concerns about the traffic congestion and safe parking conditions that result from expanded use of the premises,” Mr. Sendlenski wrote to Helen Harrison, the center’s director, in a letter dated July 16.

“For them, it’s a liability issue, and this should solve the parking problem,” Ms. Harrison said. “For us, it’s one basic schedule change, which is instead of open admission in the afternoons Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, we’ll have a limit of three tours of no more than 12 people each for those three days. And now people will have to make reservations rather than dropping in. We’ve been trying our best to get the word out to reduce the inconvenience for our visitors who might not know about the change.”

Martin Drew, a Springs resident, brought parking and traffic to the town’s attention by digging up a copy of East Hampton Town Planning Board guidelines laid out in a special permit the center received in 1991. The permit limited the site to use as a “semi-public” facility, with visits by appointment. By reverting to that permit, the center could lose $10,000 in a state grant requested for 2018-19, because, Ms. Harrison said, it would no longer meet the New York State Council for the Arts “public service” criterion.

“We really don’t know about the state funding because it’s pending,” Ms. Harrison said. “But the changes will definitely cut down on our admissions and gift shop revenue. We have visitors that come to us from all over the world, and as far away as Australia. They come to us and go to hotels, restaurants, and other places in the area as well. Right now, we’re in the process of doing an economic impact survey because all of these services have exponential impact on the area. So this affects that, too.”

Ms. Harrison said, however, that there were some positive aspects to the forced changes. The town had been willing to negotiate, she said, and allowed the center three tours and 36 reservations Thursdays through Saturdays though the original permit provided for only two tours for 10 people each on those days.

Ms. Harrison said the decrease in visitors would also reduce wear and tear on the building and grounds, especially the foot traffic on the paint-spattered studio floor in the small converted barn where Pollock painted. (Krasner worked in a room on the second floor of the main house.)

Ms. Harrison also said reservation-only policies were “not unusual” in the context of the 36-site consortium the Pollock-Krasner House belongs to, because of the fragility of some sites or space considerations. Ms. Harrison emphasized that group tours and school and family programs were not affected since they already require reservations. Reservations can be made by visiting the museum’s website.

“When you get too many people on the site at any one time, it diminishes the visitors’ experiences,” Ms. Harrison said. “So, I’m going to be optimistic about this and hope for the best.”

The Montauk Observatory has a number of events coming up this month for those interested in stars, planets, and galaxies far, far away 

Paul Stengel, a Solar System Ambassador at NASA, will give a talk “Next Stop Mars” at the Montauk Library tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Stengel’s presentation on the same subject in December was so popular that the Montauk Observatory invited him back for an encore.

Mr. Stengel, a retired science teacher who lives in Southampton, will talk about space travel to Mars and efforts “not just to get there, but to stay,” according to the observatory’s website.

The Montauk Observatory and the South Fork Natural History Museum will host two star parties in the upcoming months at the museum in Bridgehampton. Astronomers from the observatory will give guided tours of the night sky to those who attend. Participants can take their personal telescopes and binoculars, and participate in astrophotography. The first party will be held from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10; the other from 8 to 10 p.m. on Sept. 7. The parties will not be held if it is raining or overcast. They are free and family-friendly, and refreshments are provided. 

Donations from participants help to fund the observatory’s programs.

The Earth is passing through the comet Swift-Tuttle’s path from July 17 to Aug. 24. The Perseid meteor shower will be highly visible during the peak of the Earth’s passing on the night of Aug. 12 to 13. During the peak, the meteors are predicted to move at a rate of up to 90 per hour. This year, on Aug. 12, the moon will be in its waxing crescent phase, which is the first phase of the new moon; thus, the meteor shower will be more visible than it has been in previous years.

The fifth annual benefit for All Star Code, an organization that helps African-American and Latino boys attain the skills, networks, and mind-sets to succeed in computer science and coding, happens on Saturday evening at the East Hampton residence of Loida Lewis.

To date, around 300 boys have gone through All Star Code’s six-week “summer intensive” boot camp program, hosted by tech companies, financial institutions, and other entities, such as Facebook, Cisco, Bond Collective, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Oath, and MLB Advanced Media. 

The program introduces them to essential web development skills while cultivating an entrepreneurial mind-set and a network of peers. Ninety-five percent of participants have matriculated to four-year colleges, more than one-third of which are universities ranked in the top 100. Most of the students ultimately major in computer science or a related field. 

The organization recently expanded to Pittsburgh and will soon expand farther, said Christina Lewis, All Star Code’s founder and director. “It’s really about inspiring people,” she said this week. Ms. Lewis is the daughter of Loida and the late Reginald Lewis, the first African-American to build a billion-dollar company, as chairman and chief executive of TLC Beatrice International Holdings.

“Getting, keeping, and getting promoted in that first job, there are challenges in each stage in the pipeline,” Ms. Lewis said. “Success is not assured.” Fifty-five percent of All Star Code participants, she said, are the first of their family to attend college, and African-American and Latinos are dramatically underrepresented in the tech sector.

As in years past, Saturday’s fund-raiser will feature demonstrations of products and programs created by All Star Code students. The evening will also feature a cocktail hour, dinner catered by the chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Harlem, an auction, and a “fireside chat.” 

Honorees at this year’s benefit include Van Jones, the CNN correspondent, author, and founder and president of the nonprofit organization Dream Corps, one initiative of which is called #YesWeCode. “I was really thrilled when he agreed to be honored,” Ms. Lewis said. 

Also to be honored is Reshma Saujani, the founder and chief executive officer of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. The journalist and author Soledad O’Brien, who co-founded the PowHERful Foundation, which helps young women attend and graduate from college, will serve as master of ceremonies. 

Mr. Samuelsson, an honorary co-chairman of the benefit, will also be honored. David Dinkins, former mayor of New York City, is expected to attend.

Tickets to the benefit are still available and can be purchased at allstarcodebenefit.org.